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Tuesday, 20 December 2016

Assessing the impacts of Motu’s Low-Emission Future Programme

by Catherine Leining, Ceridwyn Roberts, and Suzi Kerr of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust.

In
November 2016, Motu surveyed 360 people interested in climate change policy and
had 81 responses. The survey was designed to help assess the impacts of Motu’s
programme ‘Shaping New Zealand’s Low-Emission Future’ and its cross-stakeholder
Emissions Trading Scheme and Low-Emission Future Dialogues as well as inform
future programme planning. As a ‘thank you’ to all those who took part Motu
will purchase and plant six trees through the Wellington City Council’s ‘Two Million Trees’ initiative.

We
feel encouraged that more than three quarters of respondents agree or strongly
agree that Motu’s work has enhanced the quality of policy discussion on climate
change mitigation and that more than four fifths of respondents regard Motu as
a credible source of independent expert information on climate change
mitigation.

One
of the survey’s key messages was the value of collaborative dialogue for
everyone involved in the process. Participants
in the LEF Dialogue and ETS Dialogue derived value for their own work and the
work of their organisation from being part of the programmes. Most would also
recommend future Motu dialogue processes to their colleagues. Respondents encourage
us to further broaden and diversify the range of people and organisations with
which we engage.

Respondents identified a range of significant and complex
issues relevant to climate change mitigation in New Zealand where they believe
that Motu’s expertise and collaborative approaches would be useful. Some of
these represent a continuation of existing work and others would constitute new
focus areas. The issues are challenging and it will be exciting to see what
2017 brings.

The survey also highlighted the need for better communication of Motu’s work and associated outcomes and we will investigate additional avenues of communication, alongside changes in targeting, early in the New Year.We want to thank everyone who has contributed to our work during the past year. Happy holidays!

About this Blog

What are New Zealand’s possible pathways toward a global low-emission future, and what important choices lie ahead? This blog creates a forum for sharing information and perspectives about the mitigation challenges that New Zealand faces, the assets that we have, the solutions that might be developed or adapted, the lessons we can learn from overseas and the experience that we can offer to other countries.

This blog is part of Motu's Low-Emission Future project. See our about page for more information on the blog and see here for more information about the project.

The posts and comments on this blog are the views of the specific author; they are not the views of the author's organisation, other contributors, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, the programme's funders, or the New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute.